The cold embrace of thanatos

[King Avallach]

Document 1

All I can do is pray that these notes are delivered to human hands before they become bound to the pockets of the monsters that so callously slaughtered all. The haven from where I write this note is not safe at all. The land has been desecrated. Laid barren, it swallows up many an unexpecting soul. I urge you to look to the heavens, if you should spy a conspicuously blue star, they will be coming. I do not know whether they are demons of the old world, extraterrestrial entities from worlds across the vast realms of galaxies far from here. I can however describe the loathsome creatures. They seem to walk sideways like a crab, their legs are massive green stalks, eight of them attatch to an ovular body surrounded with fiery red dots surrounding which I can only speculate are eyes. Wherever they go, a cold dark spreads in front of them, regardless of whether the sun is behind them, in front of them or shining on their sides.

I beg that you hear my story, that of sorrow and pain but also of heroism and relief as I recount the exploits of the great man Dante who drove them forever from here...

 

[King Avallach]

Document 2

It was two weeks to the day. We were a simple folk, free of the ever groing conceits of the outside world. We all worked hard as a basic unit of production, for a fair wage, of course. My daughter was to be married on the Friday. The summer was a blessing, an unprecedented time of beauty, or so it seemed at the time.

When they came, we were caught unawares. I don't know where they came from but when we heard screaming outside, I went to see what the commotion was all about. There were these things there, they seized peaple with each of their several tongues and then devoured them in their cavernous mouths. It was a sight that should not have been witnessed by mortal men.

My family were close by, luckily for me. I ran and got them all to follow me. We ran as fast and as far as we could, fearing for our lives. We then camped at night, some miles away from home. As we had no money, we lived off what mother nature herself provided, berries mostly.

During the day we pressed on like nomads. The sun, once so delightful a thing became a weighty cross for us all to bear. For several days we ventured on like this. However, looking behind us, the earth was becoming foul, a putrid green that stunk of rancid garlic and old eggs.

We thought that we were doomed to die as homeless, hapless refugees in our own country.

 

[King Avallach]

Document 3

We moved closer to the gleaming lights of a city nearby. When we reached the summit of a hill that overlooked it, we saw that we were not too late. As we entered the city the smell of petroleum was omnipresent and heavy on the air. Cars zoomed in and out of view, a sight we were not unused to, except not in such great numbers all at once. It seemed fairly chaotic.

We went to the police and explained that we had been driven from our home. The police seemed okay with finding us temporary accomodation but made clear that we left as soon as word came back that oour village was once again inhabitable. Looking back on it I'm not sure they would have believed us if not for the works of a young man in the city.

We soon learned of this young mercenary, Dante. He was aparently as dangerous as they come and abouts as crazy. Rumour had it that he was not entirely human. Immediately impressed by this description I set out to find him. His shop was not too far, luckily for us. It was a little more than half a mile from where we were residing for the present time.

I met Dante and shook his hand, a firm handshake to be sure. I told him what had happened and he sighed and asked what I could offer as payment. I said that all of our possessions were back in the village. If he could help, whatever we could afford, he could have. He agreed to this and then placed twin handguns in their holsters on the back of his trechcoat. He then grabbed a large sword off of a poster that I thought was obscene to say the least.

He then left abruptly and told us not to touch anything.

 

[King Avallach]

Document 4

We followed Dante, he walked quite quickly but also fairly apathetically. As if he hadn't a care in the world. I was lost to a million replays of what had happened. I hoped that some had survived but my hope, I had to keep sound. After all, I had witnessed first-hand the destruction the things had wrought.

Dante signalled for us to stop. He shouted "Get down!" We dropped to the floor as a great fireball singed barely overhead. Dante had rolled out the way, in one hand he gripped his sword and in the other, his gun. He made a formal salute with his blade and ran in what I thought was the direction of the monsters. Looking up, I was not wrong. We dared not persue Dante any further. The ground had become putrid and smelled worse than anything I had ever smelled before.

We saw lights flash and sound waves move the ground. I assumed Dante had reached his quarry. We followed a little further. Not far had we gone when we saw an old hovel. We searched it; it was uninhabited. Dante had slain one of the beasts. I cried tears of joy when I saw it collapse on itselt. Dante then must have engaged the other. Power blazed on both sides, neither semmingly besting the other. Dante, or so I thought lashed out visciously and gunshots could be heard from where we were.

The monster was brought to its knees. Dante then took flight! He flew above his advarsary and brought down his sword with all his might. This shattered the advasary instantaneously. I was relieved but there were now much more of them than before. The ground was rotting faster than ever and had developed its own malice. It sucked up the corpses of Dante's fallen enemies and gave them life again. I had heard of this somewhere before. The cauldron of rebirth, it was called. In the stories it had been like a witches cauldron but it was the ground itself. It was the time between times, beyond night but alas not day. The ancient rituals given at this time seemingly empowered them more.

I ran over and shouted "Dante, there's likely a cairn near here, destroy its entrance and stop their endless rebirths." Dante heard what I said. He stopped fighting them and ran, my God he was quick. I have yet to see the finest race horses run as fast as he did. A few minutes later the two monsters Dante had defeated collapsed. The bad thing was that we were surrounded by no less than fifty more of them...